Utica brothers, father get prison for asbestos crimes

Two Utica brothers and their father were sentenced to prison today in an illegal asbestos-removal case that exposed an unrelated theft of up to $700,000 in parking meter money in Syracuse.
U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin sentenced Paul Mancuso to 6 ½ years in prison and ordered him to pay a $20,000 fine. His brother Steven Mancuso was sentenced to 3 2/3 years for the asbestos scheme in the Mohawk Valley.
Scullin ordered Steven Mancuso taken into custody immediately because he was acting irrationally -- yelling and trying to walk out of the courtroom during the proceeding, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Benedict. Scullin ordered Steven Mancuso to undergo mental health and substance abuse counseling.
The Mancusos’ father, Lester Mancuso, got 3 years in prison.
Each defendant will have to pay restitution. Scullin will decide how much after a hearing in September.
After they were convicted last year, Paul and Steven Mancuso told FBI agents that their brother Ronald Mancuso was involved in the theft of up to $700,000 in coins from Syracuse’s parking meters from 2000 to 2005. Agents confronted Ronald, and he led them to $325,000 in cash -- $12,000 of it in quarters, according to court papers.
Paul Mancuso’s lawyer, Edward Z. Menkin, argued his client should have gotten a more lenient sentence in exchange for the tip. Benedict argued that Paul Mancuso was obligated to offer the information in a 2003 case, when he pleaded guilty in another criminal case and was asked to disclose any crimes.
“You don’t get to sit back and do nothing and then only when you’re convicted try to use it,” Benedict said.
But Menkin said he believes Scullin did give the Mancusos’ a lesser sentence because of their tip about parking meter thefts. The government was asking that Paul Mancuso get 15 to 20 years in prison, and Scullin’s sentence was far shorter, Menkin said.